Back to the Moon-ARC

lead just ahead of O’Conner so he could open the door for her.

“Caroline.” Childers stopped her. “Please stay here. After I call our illustrious senator, I suspect I will be not only speaking with the NASA Administrator, but I’ll also be holding a press conference. I need your help to put together the talking points and the not-so-subtle message that Space Excursions is not only about joyrides but also search and rescue. If we pull this off, we’ll have customers beating down our doors for the next quarter of a century!”

Caroline looked momentarily at Gesling, offered him a smile, and then returned to her seat in front of Gary Childers. Gesling paused, left the room, and closed the door.

“Don’t worry.” Childers leaned forward toward Caroline. “He’ll be all right. He’s leading a charmed life, and I suspect that you are making it even more so. Let’s get this plan together so you can get out to Nevada yourself as soon as possible.”

“Yes, sir!”

Bill sat straddle-legged as best he could on the capsule, keeping one hand on the handhold and staring off into space. Earth was filling up a good portion of his field of view now. There was nothing he could do but sit there and contemplate. He contemplated his childhood, his life before NASA, then when he became an astronaut. He thought about his wife and kids. It made him happy to think of them and sad that he might be leaving them to fend for themselves in the world. Then he wondered if he should have done anything different. His final conclusion was no. If he ended up making the ultimate sacrifice, that would be okay with him. His mission had saved several lives and showed everyone that humans could work in the vast emptiness of space. Humanity could now go to the Moon to perform rescue missions. And, eventually, his mission would show that, even though space was a tough place to survive, humanity had what it took to do it. He was certain every other astronaut felt the same. He was pretty sure that even the Chinese taikonauts felt that way or they wouldn’t have taken the risks they did to beat the Americans to the Moon.

Bill was pretty sure that if things went bad, there would be a bit of backlash from the public. There might be that knee-jerk reaction to resist spending more resources on such a risky thing as space travel. But he also knew that everybody wanted to see Captain Kirk. Since before he was born humanity had wanted to explore space. Granted, for the most part, everyone wanted somebody else to do it and somebody else to pay for it. Well, Bill was that somebody else to do it. He had no regrets. He would do it all over again even if it meant that he would end up in exactly the same predicament, or even worse.

“Bill, are you still with us?” Chow said into the radio.

“I’m here. Where else would I be?” Stetson responded, sounding not at all like a man about to die.

“They’ve got your wife and kids on the private line. Do you want to speak with her now?”

“That’s a stupid question. Put them on.”

“Right. Here she is.” Chow changed the setting to channel five, the private line that would allow Stetson and his wife to speak without anyone aboard, in the press, or even in mission control listening. The call would be recorded, but it, like other private-line calls before it, would not be made public without consent of the astronaut. Long ago, NASA had decided that everyone was entitled to private conversations with their loved ones, even astronauts.

Bill Stetson had wanted to go to the Moon since he had been old enough to remember. It was his main goal in life. Well, he had gone to the Moon. In fact, he had done more than go to the Moon. He had gone to the Moon and rescued a ship full of stranded astronauts and done his best to get them home. And, as far as he could tell, it looked like they were going to get home. He sat on the lower half of the Orion space capsule just beneath the solar arrays staring aimlessly the beautiful starry space. He didn’t really wonder about the afterlife, because he felt at one with the universe right then and there. The problem wasn’t fulfilling lifelong dreams and goals. The problem was leaving behind the ones that he loved. And he loved his wife with all his mind, body, soul, and heart. Then there were his two kids. His daughter was fourteen going on twenty-three and looked just like her mother—acted like her, too. And his son was eleven and every bit as bullheaded as his old man. It tore at Bill’s insides thinking of them growing up without him there to see it. He indeed felt he was making the ultimate sacrifice to push humanity into space and was proud of what he had done, but right then and there he just wished he could hug and kiss his family.

“Bill? Do you hear me?” He could hear his wife biting back the tears.

“Terry? I hear you, gorgeous!” Bill paused long enough to swallow the lump in his throat. “Sally and Neil there, too?”

“We’re here, Daddy. We love you!”

“I love you, too, kiddos. Listen to me now. Things have gotten away from me up here, and it doesn’t look like I’m gonna be coming home. It was worth it, though, because we saved four lives.” Bill gulped and wasn’t certain what his tear ducts would do in microgravity.

“No, Daddy! You have to come home,” Sally cried.

“Baby, you’ve got to be there for your mother and your little brother. You have to promise me to keep him out of trouble. And you have to promise me to always be great and do your best, just like you always have.”

“I promise, Daddy.” Sally sobbed deeply. “No, Daddy. I love you!”

“I love you, too.” Bill really wasn’t sure what to say, but this was his last time to ever leave his son with any man-to-man wisdom. He didn’t have any, but he wished he did. “Neil.”

“Dad.”

“You know your mother took a lot of coercing to get her to name you after Neil Armstrong, but in the end she caved.”

“I know, Dad. You’ve told me that story before.” The boy kept his voice strong and held up like a little man.

“Well, son, I want you to promise me to be as great as your namesake. Can you do that for me?” Bill was beginning to learn that tears just balled up in the corner of your eyes in no gravity.

“No, Dad. I won’t,” his son told him.

“Now, don’t give me any sass, son.”

“I don’t want to be as great as the first man to walk on the Moon. I want to be as great as you, Dad!” Neil said through sobs.

“I love you, son.” What can I say to that? Bill thought. He had to pause for a second or two as he almost lost control of himself. He managed to hold back from breaking down completely. “You will be